David Slade

DAVID SLADE

Date of Birth: September 26, 1969

David Slade was born in Great Britain and graduated from the fine art program at the University of Sheffield. He began his career making music videos, directing for Warp Records, before moving to Hollywood. He has made over 35 music videos for popular artists such as Tori Amos, Muse, Stone Temple Pilots, Aphex Twin and AFI. He has also worked on television commercials, and made two short films—Do Geese See God? and Meat Dog: What's fer Dinner.

Slade's feature film debut was with the independent drama Hard Candy (2005), about a 14-year-old girl who confronts a pedophile in his home. He was attracted to the uniqueness of the film so much that he turned down a multi-million dollar deal to make it into a straight revenge thriller with 18-year-old Ellen Page in the leading role. "If you've done the kinds of things that I've done [in music videos], which is everything from blowing up cars to God knows what," he said, "[this film] is the antithesis of that. The scripts I usually get sent are Hollywood action-type things." He then moved on to direct an equally dramatic film, the horror 30 Days of Night (2007), which stars Josh Hartnett and Ben Foster and is based on the popular graphic novel.

Slade has proven his ability to direct movies containing dark subject matter, and signed on in April 2009 to direct The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010).

Filmography

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)
30 Days of Night (2007)
Hard Candy (2005)